Recently I gave a seven minute presentation on what it is
that makes us care about the environment. This presentation was given to fellow
students who were partaking in a training course called Green Steps @ Uni. We
were all required to give a presentation on a topic of our choice as long as it
was sustainability related. I chose to give my presentation on what it is that
makes us care about the environment as since conducting a literature review on
the topic I have become quite interested in the subject.
In this presentation I basically summarised my findings of
my literature review and came to the conclusion, with the help of the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’ s current Love Not
Loss campaign, that we care about the environment due to the love we feel for
the natural world. This love for the natural world comes about through our
human ability to feel empathy. It is
through empathy for nature and fellow creatures that we feel a sense of
compassion and therefore love and it is through this love that we want to
protect the natural world (Futerra 2010, Reis & Roth 2009).
The below TED talk by Jeremy Rifkin entitled The Empathic
Civilisation alludes to this importance of feeling empathy for the natural
world. He suggests that humans are hard wired to feel empathy and is a part of
our neurology. He refers to humans as Homo Empathicus, and that over time our
ability to empathise has evolved and extended to beyond our immediate tribe to
that of our nation. Currently, Rifkin suggests, due to technology our empathy
now extends to the whole world and with this extension, theoretically we should
be able to extend empathy to other creatures and the biosphere. Rifkin believes
it is by extending our empathy to other creatures and the biosphere that we may
have a chance at protecting our planet. However,
he sends a word of warning that it is our current political context that is
threatening Homo Empathicus and causing us to put empathy aside. If we disallow
our political context to influence our ability to empathise with that which is
beyond us than we potentially have a means of causing movement to protect
nature.
Although Jeremy Rifkin’s idea resonates with me and supports
the claims I have made in my literature review and recent presentation, I think
I need to delve into this idea further and deeper. In doing so I think I may be
able to pull out exactly why empathy and compassion cause us to want to protect
the environment. I may be passionate
about this idea but if I cannot articulate it well and with a real conviction
then it is not strong enough to put into an environmental education philosophy.
Futerra 2010
Branding Biodiversity Futerra Sustainability Communications
http://www.futerra.co.uk/downloads/Branding_Biodiversity.pdf, 16 July 2011
Reis G and
Roth W 2009 A Feeling for the Environment: Emotion Talk in/for Pedagogy of
Public Environmental Education The
Journal of Environmental Education 41(2):71-87.
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